The Union government of India has revised the guidelines for international arrivals and has removed the demarcation of ‘at-risk’ countries, which were specified by the government during the onset of the latest variant last year. The government has now recommended self-monitoring to the international travellers for 14 days, contrary to the 7-day at-home quarantine period.
The new rules enforced by the government will be implemented from February 14, as per the statement by the Union Health Ministry. The Union Health Ministry said that there has been a decline in the current daily cases by almost 80 per cent after the nation witnessed a peak of daily infection last month earlier this year. The Ministry also said that four states in the country have been reporting over 50,000 active cases.
Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu have been registering 50,000 active cases of the deadly Coronavirus. In 11 of the states, the number of active cases has been between 10,000 and 50,000 as per the statement made by Luv Aggarwal, Joint Secretary of the Union Health Ministry during the weekly press briefing. The Ministry has also added that the active caseload of the COVID-19 in 21 states and Union Territories are less than 10,000 currently.
The Union Government has revised rules for international arrivals and the new rules will come into effect from February 14, 2022. The central government has also approved Rs. 6.15 crore as financial assistance for the families of 123 journalists who have died due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the past two years. The Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, L Murugan, while replying to the supplementary question asked in Rajya Sabha has said that it was the state government’s responsibility to take action against the harassment of the women journalists online.
He further added that the government was very much concerned about the journalists’ welfare in the country. He mentioned that the government had conducted a special drive for journalists during the pandemic. The journalists who had lost their lives due to Coronavirus will be given financial support. About this, the government has approved Rs. 6.15 crore for the financial support of the concerned families.